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Top 10 Songs of the Year 2014 – International Edition

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It’s time to get this listing party started. I don’t think anyone actually cares, but I still love making these. Let’s start with my favourite songs of the year. I didn’t spend ages on this one, because that album of the year list is going to take a huge amount time. The top three are obvious and I kind of agreed on them (with myself) a long time ago. The rest of the spots might look totally different on another day, because I think I could easily come up with 50 songs that I really loved during the year.

Top 10 Songs of the Year 2014 – International edition

10. The Slim City Pickers – About Love

Canadian country rockers, The Slim City Pickers can do the honors and get this ball rolling with their gorgeous song called About Love. This might be rather obscure choice, but I love this simple song so much. One of the most enjoyable things I’ve heard this year.

9. Ryan Tanner – Days To Think Of You

Ryan Tanner’s Together Is Where We Belong album is maybe a little too long, but contains a lot of magical moments. One of them is this sweet little tune Days To Think Of You that will gently destroy you. It’s so subtle, warm and beautiful heartbreaker. Oh how I love the arrangements and those harmonies. Actually it doesn’t destroy me, it makes me whole.

8. Strand Of Oaks – JM

I had some doubts about the new Strand Of Oaks album. I loved half of it, but it had some songs (or should I say some arrangements) that I wasn’t so sure about. However, this Jason Molina tribute JM is just stunning and it took my breath away.

7. Caleb Caudle – Miss You Like Crazy

Caleb Caudle’s wonderful album Paint Another Layer On My Heart has 3-4 excellent candidates for this list, but I had to go with this magnificent ballad Miss You Like Crazy. That moment when Caleb sings the lines “if the lord takes you first / he better takes us both / because I miss you like crazy” might be the most touching moment on any song this year.

6. Marine Dreams – Constant Love

I’m a huge fan of Ian Kehoe aka Marine Dreams. His 2014 album Lemon Tree wasn’t as mind-blowingly awesome as his 2013 album Corner Of The Eye, but it sure is another good one. And it of course contains this amazing pop song called Constant Love.

5. Parker Millsap – At The Bar (Emerald City Blues)

I haven’t even featured Parker Millsap here, because I just ordered a copy a couple of weeks ago and it hasn’t even arrived in the mail yet. But I’ve been spinning it on Spotify and have already fallen in love with it. At The Bar (Emerald City Blues) is probably my favourite, because I’m indeed a sucker for sad songs as well.

4. I Was A King – Oslo Share

I Was A King’s new album wasn’t all about sweet pop harmonies, but I loved their pop songs the most. Oslo Share and Bygdoy 30 are heavenly good pop songs. Either one would be a good pick from these Norwegian heroes, but I’ll go with Oslo Share this time around.

freschard

3. Freschard – Cheese And Crackers

Well I guess this is actually 2013 release. It came out in December 2013. But it’s my blog and my listing rules and I don’t have the heart to leave this out, because this was the year of Freschard for me. I fell in love with her music earlier in the year and I became really addicted to her albums Boom Biddy Boom and Shh.. This song Cheese and Crackers is the loveliest earworm I can think of. This song has been continuously playing in my head for months and I don’t even want to get rid of it (even though I don’t even actually like cheese and crackers). I love it with all my heart. Who wouldn’t? This song is totally irresistible and super catchy.

frontierruckus

2. Frontier Ruckus – Little Henrietta

There would probably be four songs by Frontier Ruckus in the top 10, if I didn’t have this stupid rule that I only include one song per artist. Therefore this was a battle between Little Henrietta and Bathroom Stall Hypnosis and Little Henrietta came on top today. Frontier Ruckus is my favourite band in the world right now.

sunde

And the Song of the Year 2014 award in the international category goes to…

1. J.E.Sunde – A Blinding Flash Of Light

I’m not sure does it make me a sad case, when I tell you that this song A Blinding Flash Of Light by J.E. Sunde is my favourite song of the year 2014 by a large margin. There’s no denying that this extremely fragile song is actually the strongest song of the year. Totally unique and unforgettable. This is A Blinding Flash Of Light by J.E. Sunde.

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Finnish music, Headline, News

Common Tones – Broken Heart Sounds & Flannelmouth – I Am The Town

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Sometimes it feels like One Chord to Another has drifted a bit too far from the starting point, which was to love, praise and promote melodic Finnish guitar pop. Finnish pop music was the reason I started this whole mess over thirteen years ago, so let’s get back to that core at least for one blog entry. These two new new releases perfectly fit under that original idea.

commontones

First we have the new album by Common Tones called Broken Heart Sounds that just came out late last week. I’ve had the chance to listen to it since early summer and I think it’s a wonderful album full of addictive melodies. These boys certainly have a great pop sensibility. You’ll find a couple of fine examples below. The first single Shine from Bandcamp and Finding Life from Spotify. The album is available at least on iTunes and Spotify. Oh and about that thing that drove me insane in the summer. After listening to this album for hours and hours, I came to conclusion that it’s Tommy Keene whose vocal phrasing occasionally came to mind while listening to this.

Common Tones at Facebook

flanneli

Finnish pop veterans Flannelmouth has a new album out, available and ready to hit your heart. It’s called I Am The Town and it came out in early November on Bianca-Pop Music. They have certainly written a really good album once again. They always do this melodramatic and graceful pop music so brilliantly. This first single and music video Forgotten Tapes is a great example of their talent.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1cWS93Y5Kg]

Flannelmouth Website

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Finnish music, Headline, News

Jere Ijäs, Nopat & Jukka Nousiainen

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I should start making those year-end lists, but I still have a few dozen 2014 releases that I haven’t featured at all. Some that even might appear on those lists. So I try to shortly go through some of them before writing those lists later in December.

jereijäs

First we have the new self-titled Jere Ijäs album that came out on Turenki Records a few months ago. 20 years younger version of me would have probably thought that this is dreadfully boring, but the current version of me thinks it’s a beautiful album full of warmth and human kindness. I pretty much hate the song Mitä tapahtui, tapahtui, but other than that.. it’s all love. For example Jostakin syystä oon onnellinen, Etelänvaunu and Kun näet vuodenkierron are all gorgeous.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=217XJ0kc2Go]

Jere Ijäs at Facebook

Nopat_Valonkajoa_digi

This second Nopat album Valonkajoa that came out on on Kioski Records early in the fall has been barely mentioned around here. That’s rather criminal, because it’s a wonderful album and certainly will be one of my top 10 Finnish albums when I finally make those lists. This is Liian Täydellinen from that lovely album.

Nopat Website

Oh and Jukka Nousiainen. Of course I love this guy. Who doesn’t? There just haven’t been much need to recommend his solo album Huonoa seuraa, because it has been so well covered in the actual music media. And rightfully so. My silly ramblings on this tiny and rather worthless blog wouldn’t really add anything to this story. But yeah, still wanted to make it finally known that I’m definitely on board on this bandwagon and this a top 10 Finnish release for me. Huonoa seuraa is one of the most delightful albums of the year and it’s just a whole lot of fun to listen to it. Here’s that song called Meneehän se elämä tässäkin that steals a bit from the almighty Jolly Jumpers. But hey, if you want to steal some, it’s a good decision to steal from one of the best ever.

Jukka Nousiainen at Facebook

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Headline, International music, News

Darren Hanlon – When You Go (single/video)

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darrensingle

It’s soon time to select the albums of the year 2014, but we already have a good candidate for 2015’s top 10 or top 1. Australia’s finest pop troubadour Darren Hanlon is finally about to release a new full-length albun Where Did You Come From? in March 2015. The first single from the forthcoming album is called When You Go and physical copies of this vinyl single can be pre-ordered from Flippin Yeah Industries. I’m a huge fan of Darren Hanlon and I’m extremely eager to hear the new album. He is a first class singer-songwriter and this first taste of the new album is once again wonderful. The music video for the new song was directed by Jeff Rowles. I also added some older Darren Hanlon classics below the new video, because he has written a lot of magnificent songs over the years and has also released some very cool music videos.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyi19WZ_zmw]

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/175458204″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”100″ iframe=”true” /]
 
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-GH35-FDP8]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwsWs0sImwk]

Darren Hanlon: Scenes from A Separation from shoottheplayer.com on Vimeo.

Darren Hanlon Website

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